Everyday Design Inspiration

Examples:
1. Superman #14 Cover
Color: This cover uses the three primary colors, Yellow, Red, and Blue. (Part of this choice was the availability of colored inks at the time of printing.)
Typography: The "Superman" title was specially made for this series and has remained (relatively) unchanged for close to 80 years.
Logo: The superman logo has gone through many changes over the years, and has adapted to changing times.
Target Audience: This comic was targeted at children, generally boys.
Call to Action: The eagle is the call to action, this issue was extremely patriotic. (It was produced during WWII)
Production Process: The way that this issue was produced was by a lithographic printer and a web feeding system. It was considered a short order because there were only 10000 created.

2. Alien Poster (1979)
Color: The use of Green as the focal point draws the eye.
Typography: Using a thin sans-serif elicits a mechanical or alien feeling.
Logo: There isn't really a logo, but the egg might be considered one...
Target Audience: Males primarily. (ages 18-45)
Call to Action: The glowing stuff coming out of the egg.
Production Process: Multi-Color Lithographic Printing.









3.Kansas City Zoo Logo
Color: Green and Blue primarily, with a good use of negative space.
Typography: A Serif Font
Logo: The logo emits a "nature" feel as well as showing a pair of "monkeys", which are one of the zoos major attractions.
Target Audience: Everyone who likes animals.
Call to Action: The monkeys are the focal point, but they lead to the text.
Production Process: This is on a variety of products.



4.Planet Comicon Poster
Color:Blues
Typography: Sans-Serif for another "alien" looking font
Logo: The planet (probably modeled after Saturn)
Target Audience: Males, primarily (again) But, everyone equally.
Call to Action: The Planet, which leads down to the Text.
Production Process: It looks like Vintage comic books, with the dot design.

All of these are things that inspire me, but specifically, in order of appearance, they are;
1. A comic poster that I saw at the Planet Comicon I attended over springbreak.
2. Another poster that I saw over the weekend.
3. The Kansas City Zoo logo, I saw it when I went to the zoo...
4. This is the official Planet Comicon logo.

These are the things that inspire me, if this isn't good enough, Tough.

Adobe Tutorial #2

Silhouetting:
This is the act of "cutting" an image from it's original surroundings, usually to place it somewhere else entirely.

Link to tutorial:
www.photoshopessentials.com

Before:



















Step 1.
Select the shape within the image to be "silhouetted".

This can be done with a variety of tools, most instructors will recommend the Pen tool, but I prefer the Magnetic Lasso, as it "sticks" to an image. Also the regular lasso, along with the shift key or the alt key, can be used to fine tune the selection.

Step 2.
Cut away the rest

Once you have the image selected, as desired, use the inverse selection to select everything but the image. That way, you have only what you need.

Step 3.
This step can go one of two ways, you can either fill in the selection, or place the selection in a new setting.

A. Fill in the selection:
Select All (Command-A)
Use the paint bucket to fill in the selection.

B. Place the selection in a new setting
Select All (Command-A)
Copy the Selection (Command-C)
Paste the selection into a new setting (Command-V)

Finished images:
A. (This Kind of didn't work, so I went with the other one...)


















B.



















Anyways, This has been Adobe Tutorial #2: Silhouettes

Copyrights: This is a photo from a hallmark card, I sent them an email asking for permission, and they said, " as long as the photo is not for commercial use" I can use it...
Once again:
Link to tutorial:
www.photoshopessentials.com

Magazine And Billboard Advertisement Project

The magazine I chose to advertise in was PIMagazine, it is a monthly publication for private investigators and law enforcement.

I'm not sure what my budget is, but I'm going to guess that it is more than $97.

These are the specifications directly from the website:

The Readership Demographic is mainly men and women in Private Detective work, along with some City, State, and Federal Investigators, as well.

I will have a microsoft tag in this ad...
This is my microsoft tag...

5 thumbnails:

1 rough (ruler used):

When this project was joined with the Bill board project I decided to change the message and "ad" of my project. I shifted from a sales perspective to a eco-friendly not-for-profit.

So, this is my new bill board design. I will probably make this my new magazine as as well, because it is equally relevant everywhere...

The difference between a billboard design and other projects is the distance and time readers have to see it. A billboard is at least 30 feet away and only visible for 4-5 seconds on a slow highway.

With those in mind, the resolution of any billboard project doesn't need to be extremely high, usually around 72 ppi.

The purpose of my billboard is to increase awareness about the need for everyone to recycle.

The target audience is everyone, I know that isn't acceptable, but everyone really should recycle...

Project specifications:

22ft 8in X 10ft 5in

The file should be created at 72 ppi and be 22.662 in X 10.412 in

Cost to produce: $1,150.00 (this is a quote from prolabdigital).
I called them and explained my project and this is the quote they gave me.

5 Thumbnails:

2 Roughs:...

What I started with:

Copyright: All artwork produced is my own.
Information for magazine ad from: PIMagazine.com
Information for billboard ad from: Lamar Graphics and ProlabDigital.

Adobe Tutorial #1

How to make a color photo black and white, with one color accented.

Here is the photo I'm starting with.
It was a stock photo supplied to me by dropbox an online file share service.
Isn't he cute?













Step 1.
Create a new layer on top of the "background" layer.
<--This is the button for it...

Step 2.
select the "background" layer.

Step 3.
Use the lasso tool to select something that should be colored.
OR, you can use Select>Color Range... and use the dropper to select a range of a specific color, I chose red.

Step 4.
Use Select>Inverse
This selects everything EXCEPT for what you want to change color.

Step 5.
Select the new layer created in step 1.

Step 6.
Use the paintbrush tool and make everything black.

Step 7.
Set the blending mode for the layer to Hue.
<---This is what it looks like.

Step 8.
Enjoy.

Finished product:














Link to tutorial: www.instructables.com
Although, I didn't really need the tutorial to do this.

Master Image Descriptions

Bitmap:
A Bitmap is a map of bits, or dots. Filetypes associated with Bitmaps are; BMP, JPEG, GIF, PICT, PCX, and TIFF. A Bitmap is resolution depending, so don't get too close.

Reverse:
A Reverse is when a block of color is used and the paper source is used as "white".
This is a good use of negative space.

Vector Art:
Vector Art is Resolution independent. Meaning that, no matter how large or small it gets, the proportions are the same. It is math-based, as well. Filetypes associated with vector art are; .AI, CGM, SVG, .CDR, and .3ds (for 3-D Vectors).

Grayscale Raster:
A Grayscale Raster is a set of cells that are between 0 and 255. 0 is "white" and 255 is "black". This is a very simple image set. Filetypes associated with grayscale raster are; PNG, TIFF, BMP, and GIF.

Duotone Raster:
A Duotone Raster is a halftone image with another halftone image printed on top of it. (usually in black.)
It comes from Cyanotype, it was used in newspapers and comic books.

Silhouette Raster:
A Silhouette Raster is when an image is "cut out" of it's surroundings and used in a new setting. The filetypes associated with silhouette rasters are; TIFF, EPS, PSD, and PDF.

Full Bleed Raster:
A Full Bleed Raster is a raster image that "bleeds" out over the edges of a paper. This is designed to be cut, without losing vital detail. Full Bleeds can be present in most filetypes.

Four Color Raster:
A Four Color Raster is raster that includes 4 colors. Also, they can be present in most filetypes.

Screen Tint:
A Screen Tint is "A screen pattern that consists of dots that are all the same size and create an even tone."

sources: www.printingtips.com
The book for this course.
Personal experience.

Newspaper ad project

Budget: $97
Formula:
Column width x height = size x $4
My Dimensions:
4(7.71") x 6.0625" = 24.25 x $4 = $97

My target audience is artists of all ages and skill levels.
My call to action will is "Make great characters"
I had to use a bitmap image on this ad. It had to be created by line drawing first and tracing with a .5 inch sharpie pen. (.5 was a personal choice)
Line screen is important with bitmaps as they are measured by lines per inch.

5 thumbnails














1 rough (ruler used)

Chapter 8,9,&10

CSR role: Customer Service Representatives are the common contacts for a job and should be informed of everything about your job when dropping it off at the printer.

Talking with the Printer: Usually when you go to the printer, a salesperson will be your first contact, they will ask you questions about your job and refer you to a CSR, who can handle your job.

Planning for Print: When planning for your print, always keep the dimensions, colors, and substrates of your job in mind. These can include;
Document Size, Adequate Bleed, and Internal Panel sizes.

Check Rasters/Vectors: When supplying rasters for a project, be sure that it is in the proper format for the printer, and be sure that the resolution is set correctly. Depending on your job, the resolution can be drastically different. With Vectors be sure that they have the correct colors (Pantones are a safe bet here). Also be sure to supply the proper images and fonts. This can be done by either embedding them or package the images and fonts together. The best practice is to embed the images and fonts, but also package them , as well, just to be safe.

Types of proofs: sometimes called random proofs or scatter proofs, these show a sample of what your project should look like after being printed.

Scale & Rotate in PS: Always scale and rotate any images in photoshop or some other file editing software before placing it in InDesign.

Resolution for output: Usually, 300 Dpi is the proper resolution for output. Although depending on the project a a lower resolution could be "good enough", especially if the project is a large banner or sign.

Color Space in PS & AI: Always convert images to Pantone or spot colors. This way the printer can match the color exactly, and it will look correct, no matter what.

Flatten or layered: The choice of using a flattened image or a layered image depends on two things, the user and the printer. If the user is skilled, then they may be able to use layered files efficiently, and if the printer allows for it, layered files may fly, but if either of them don't work well with layers, then flattening is the way to go. Just be sure to save an extra copy before destroying some part of a project.

Transparency: Transparency is the amount of alpha in pixels. Something between 1 and 0. The less alpha a pixel has the less visible it is.

Creating a Path: Paths are created by drawing a shape on top of an image and choose create clipping mask. This path will show through like a window in whatever shape the path was in.
Duotones: Duotones are images that are comprised of 2 colors, usually black and a spot color, although, sometimes black can be traded for another spot color, depending on the designers specifications.
AI Artboards: This is the imaginary "paper" that a designer can use to create vectors in Adobe Illustrator.
Bleed Settings: Bleed Settings in Ilustrator apply to all sides, they can not be custom shapes. They can be up to one inch in depth.
AI Simplify complex art: The simplify command in ilustrator "modifies" an image by reducing the number of points used to make a vector image.

AI Clean Up: Clean up deletes all points outside of the current work.

AI Effects & Clipping Mask: Effects in illustrator either alter the inside, the outside, or both, of a vector path. Clipping Masks however, "punch out" parts of an image in the shape of the mask.

AI Transparency: While Transparency may look similar in Photoshop and Illustrator, they have key differences. One of the main differences is that Illustrator will overlap 2 spot colors, which are then converted to CMYK to accommodate the transparency.
AI Linked & Embedded image: You can either link or embed images within illustrator files. If the images are not packaged properly, they can be re-linked. This is of course assuming that the designer still has access to the original image.